title: Imaging pain: a potent means for investigating pain mechanisms in patients.
abstract: Chronic pain is a state of physical suffering strongly associated with feelings of anxiety, depression and despair. Disease pathophysiology, psychological state, and social milieu can influence chronic pain, but can be difficult to diagnose based solely on clinical presentation. Here, we review brain neuroimaging research that is shaping our understanding of pain mechanisms, and consider how such knowledge might lead to useful diagnostic tools for the management of persistent pain in individual patients.
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Division of Anaesthetics and Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. michael.lee@ndcn.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tracey
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends
keywords: chronic pain; neuroimaging, magnetic resonance imaging, functional